(19)
(11) EP 0 423 726 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
16.09.1992 Bulletin 1992/38

(43) Date of publication A2:
24.04.1991 Bulletin 1991/17

(21) Application number: 90119840.8

(22) Date of filing: 16.10.1990
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC)5: G06F 9/38
(84) Designated Contracting States:
DE FR GB

(30) Priority: 16.10.1989 JP 266158/89

(71) Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken 210 (JP)

(72) Inventor:
  • Miyamori, Takashi
    Kita-ku, Tokyo (JP)

(74) Representative: Lehn, Werner, Dipl.-Ing. et al
Hoffmann, Eitle & Partner, Patentanwälte, Postfach 81 04 20
81904 München
81904 München (DE)


(56) References cited: : 
   
       


    (54) Branch control circuit


    (57) A branch prediction control circuit has a register. A main memory provides a machine language instruction to the register and an instruction buffer (101). The prediction control circuit decodes the instruction held in the register and predicts whether or not the branch is taken. If the instruction is a relative branch instruction, a sum of the address of the instruction and a displacement included in the instruction is computed to provide a branch address. A the same time, a branch address valid signal is provided. With this arrangement, reliable branch prediction of the relative branch instruction is realized with a small number of hardware.







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